Astoria Suffers

When I brought to my father's attention that he could switch his home's power supply from the coal plant a couple of avenues over to a windmill farm upstate, his response, to put it best, was indifferent.

"So?"

"So," I tried to explain, "windmill energy is more environmentally friendly."

He looked at me, turned to the basketball game flickering on the TV and turned back.

"What if the wind stops blowing?" he asked.

"All wind power is backed up with coal power. But the coal power only turns on if and when the windmills don't have enough power."

"Oh," he murmered. "You know," he added, "if more people signed up for wind power won't there be less pollution from the power plant?"

"Actually yes." Sometimes I forget the obvious.

"And doesn't," my father asks, "the pollution lead to asthma."

It does. He knows this.

"So," my father concludes, "the more people sign up for wind power, the less pollution, and then the less asthma."

Yes. Yes. Yes.

"OK, sign us up." And with that he turned back to the game. I logged on to the Green Solutions website, filled out the forms, and just like that, our house's power is coming from a windmill in upstate New York. And like that, I breathed a little easier.